"there's a place I heard about / we could run away / ditch this filthy oil slick so what do you say? / all we need is trucker speed and mosquito spray..."
The 90's was a time when a lot of music was exquisitely blended from times before. 3 parts 80's power pop, 1 part 70's glam, 2 parts 60's surf rock, 1 part 70's proto punk, 1 part 60's Detroit rock and 1 part late 80's post punk and 1 part mid 80's grunge (or something like that). Born ostensibly on American College Radio and spilling out on a buhzillion impressionable other garage bands playing in venues from warehouse shows, bars turned into rock hangouts, bowling alleys, ice rinks, everywhere. It was such a fertile environment and over the last decade it seems like the 90's are back in a big way.
The chunky, acerbic, urgent indie rocker "Shady Town" by Corvair, that at it's core is Portland husband and wife duo of singer Heather Larimer and guitarist / singer Brian Naubert, along with Northwest drummer Mike Musburger (Fastbacks, The Posies), makes for a happy trip. A combination of dark sometimes self deprecating self reflections and mosh worth jubilation, the track feels ultra cool, like an amalgam of artists like Veruca Salt, The Breeders, Throwing Muses. Maybe like rabid punk rock in middle school or twee all grown up or a collision of both.
I really like the sound. "Shady Town" is from the band's second album "Bound To Be" which purports to explore "darker and more complex themes and traverses far-flung musical territory with mercurial mood swings" than there debut self titled album.
Singer Heather Larimer says of “Shady Town,” “The Pacific Northwest brings you to your knees right about February, when you haven’t seen dry streets or sunlight for months. We wrote 'Shady Town' deep in the winter when we were losing our minds and fantasizing about escaping. We’ve been on some major cross-country drives in our lives, so we just created a Dada collage of odd road trip details against a sleazy guitar riff."
Guitarist / singer Brian Naubert adds, “We wanted it to be very sticky, and were thinking about songs like “Cannonball” or even Gary Glitter. Something that might get played at a basketball game. We wrote the song in snippets in different settings and then stole the drumbeat from a song my 9th grade band had written about a rodeo, weirdly, and then we inserted some Doppler effects for the feeling of velocity. So the song has that unrooted speedy feeling of being on a road trip with strange people.”
Nice and, besides, Volkswagen would approve.
Of the glorious, artful Official Video for "Shady Town" press notes reveal:
The video features the band using their bodies as projection screens for driving footage, interspersed with random snapshots and psychedelic light spangles in white “headlight” and red “taillight” color schemes. The shoot technique used simple tools: a digital projector aimed at their white clothes and a white wall, plus a cheap deejay light. The video was shot by the band in a corner of a small bedroom over only a couple hours, and was edited by Brian Naubert of the band.
“Shady Town” is now available on Corvair’s Bandcamp, on YouTube and streaming services. Preorders for the full album (out June 23) are now open on bBandcamp.
“Shady Town” is now available on Corvair’s Bandcamp, on YouTube and streaming services. Preorders for the full album (out June 23) are now open on bBandcamp.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/corvairband/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/64RRaDLdfUUq6QobndC6wC
Corvair is a husband/wife duo from Portland, Oregon. Threading together 70’s pop, 80’s synth rock and 90’s indie rock, influences from The Carpenters to ELO, Cheap Trick to Metric, Corvair sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard and everything you’ve always loved. Naubert and Larimer have previously recorded or performed on more than twenty albums. Larimer’s musical mainstay was the garage pop band Eux Autres, broadly hailed as a “veritable cult classic” band. Naubert is a longtime fixture of the Northwest rock community, having played in vital bands such as Tube Top, Pop Sickle, The Service Providers, and the critically-lauded Ruston Mire, since 1995. Most recently, Brian released his first solo record, Hoffabus and an album as part of the Northwest guitar rock Supergroup, The Service Providers.
Search Spotify and follow Eux Autres, Ruston Mire, Hoffabus, or The Service Providers.
Corvair, Portland, indie rock, punk, post punk, jangle pop, power pop, revival rock, proto-pop, twee, blended rock, "Shady Town", new sophomore album "Bound To Be",
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